Bowing out at Joe Bar

Jess Van Nostrand, who has selected all those terrific art exhibits at Joe Bar, will no longer be in-house coffee shop curator, starting next January. In an email, she said she’s turning job over to Seattle bagpainter Chris Crites . She’s publishing a small book featuring the 20 exhibits she mounted during her last three Joe Bar years. There will be a book release party Dec. 2, from 6-9 p.m. at (where else?) the Capitol Hill coffee shop that calls itself a bar named Joe, at 810 E. Roy St.